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Saturday,
September 16, 2006 7:00 PM CDT
Raiders have big 2nd half, blow
out Urbana
By
Douglas Hamm
dhamm@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON
-- It took the Bloomington High School football team a
while to get going Friday in its long-awaited home debut
at Fred Carlton Field.
Once the Purple Raiders
got untracked, they struck quickly and
repeatedly.
BHS erupted for 18 points in the
first six minutes of the second half to break open a
tight game, and the Raiders rode a strong defensive
effort to claim a 42-8 Big 12 Conference victory over
Urbana.
The Raiders improved to 3-1 overall and
in the Big 12 with the lopsided result, but BHS coach
Rigo Schmelzer wasn’t pleased with his team’s uneven
play in the first half.
“The kids are going to
have to learn to come out and play with emotion against
everybody,” Schmelzer said. “I don’t think that was
evident in the first half tonight. I think our players
started to realize this was a situation they shouldn’t
have found themselves in.
“We’re at the point now
where these kids are going to have to get motivation
from inside. We’re going to do what we can as far as
coaching to get them in the right spot and help them
understand the mistakes they’re making, but they’re
going to have to step up.”
Darian Davis’ 6-yard
run capped a 10-play, 55-yard scoring drive on BHS’
opening drive, and the first of six Adam Peden
extra-point kicks gave the Raiders an early 7-0
lead.
Urbana returned a fumble to the BHS 46 on
the Raiders’ second possession, and the Tigers quickly
marched to the 8. BHS responded with a goal-line stand
capped by a Frank Ford sack on fourth down.
After
getting great field position when Urbana was forced to
punt out of its own end zone, the Raiders added another
score with 39.8 seconds left in the first half on a
4-yard TD pass from junior quarterback Levi Johnson to
Josh Mitchell.
“I’m not really sure what was
going on,” Mitchell said of BHS’ sluggish start. “Coach
called a timeout and got us motivated, and we had the
desire to stop them. We didn’t want them to score on us.
We weren’t reading our keys right and doing our
assignments right, but we got a lot better as the game
went on.”
The Raiders forced turnovers on two of
Urbana’s first three possessions in the second half, and
BHS quickly turned a 14-0 lead into a 35-0 cushion on TD
runs by Cole Lamberti, Johnson and Davis. Sophomore
Darrelynn Dunn’s 25-yard TD run with 11:26 remaining
made it 42-0.
Urbana (0-4, 0-4) averted the
shutout with 3:10 left on a 1-yard TD run by Justin
Kwiatkowski.
“We felt like we played well in the
first half and it easily could have been a 7-7 game,”
said Urbana coach Steve Waller. “You can’t afford to
give a team like Bloomington turnovers and chances
inside your own territory. We did that in the second
half, and I thought that was the difference in the
game.”
BHS outgained Urbana 278-98 while forcing
three turnovers and recording five sacks. Dunn led a
balanced ground attack with 95 yards on 10 carries. Eash
and Johnson were both effective while splitting time at
quarterback, combining to complete 7 of 10 passes for 63
yards.
“A lot of us know where we want to be, and
I don’t think we feel comfortable yet,” Schmelzer said.
“I see some pretty good football yet to be played by
these guys. I don’t think we came out and showed our
best game, and that’s a concern.”
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NCHS Sophomore wrote on September 16, 2006 5:07 PM:"Who cares about the title, so they beat urbana. I do not think Urbana can score more than 8 points this season....lol. GO IRON"
Dictionary.com wrote on September 16, 2006 2:45 PM:"un‧tracked /ʌnˈtrækt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[uhn-trakt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –adjective 1. that is not or cannot be tracked or traced: untracked marauders of the jungle. 2. Informal. achieving a superior level of performance after a slow start: The team suddenly got untracked and began to score."
Grammarian wrote on September 16, 2006 8:34 AM:"the second paragraph should read, "once the Purple Raiders got "on track"..." not untracked!"
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